Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, January 23, 1993 TAG: 9301230361
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: S-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JERRY BUCK ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
KUNG FU - ALIVE, KICKING
DAVID Carradine remains wrapped in his own brand of mysticism. He is tall and gaunt, a bit grayer now, but he still has that enigmatic smile that suggests he is enjoying some private revelation.Carradine has returned to television to play the grandson of the character he created in the 1970s television series "Kung Fu."
"I'm 146 years old - that's how I can play the same role," he said. "We give lip service to my being the grandson, but I'm the same guy. Only the face is older. There's the story of a Kung Fu master who lived to be 253 years old. Who knows? I may still be doing the series in 2080."
"Kung Fu: The Legend Continues" is a modern-day version of the western series noted for its unusual Shaolin priest hero, Kwai Chang Caine, and its espousal of a mystic Chinese philosophy that rarely got deeper than a fortune cookie aphorism.
The syndicated series, part of the new Warner Bros. Prime Time Entertainment Network, will make its debut with a two-part story Wednesday and Thursday (at 10 p.m. on WJPR-Channel 21/27), with Carradine starring as Caine and Chris Potter as his rather contemporary son, Peter Caine. (The show will move to its regular time slot at 10 p.m. Fridays, starting Feb. 5).
At 56, Carradine still practices Tai Chi and the martial arts, but much of the tough work on the series is handled by Peter Caine, a police detective. In the series, Caine is reunited with the son, who he thought had died 15 years before.
"I think the show's appeal lies in a mystery that's kind of unsolved," Carradine said. "Caine manages to be heroic without being macho or even seeming to notice it. He's a man who has a real knowledge of the nature of the universe and doesn't use tricks.
"When the show first began, Richard Nixon shook hands with Mao in China," he said. "There was a desire to see East meet West. I think that had a lot to do with the thirst. Now we're living in a world where everyone studies martial arts and Oriental philosophy. The ideas we present are no longer radical.
"I think Caine's innocence had a lot to do with it, too. Prejudice was incomprehensible to him. He was a man who helped others."
Carradine said that while some people thought the show was about violence, he always felt its message was love. "It's love first, truth second, then wisdom," he said.
In the original show, which ran from 1972-75 and attracted a wide cult following, Caine was the son of Chinese and American parents who was orphaned and raised by monks. As a child, he was called Grasshopper by Master Po, played by Keye Luke. As a youngster, he fled to the United States to escape a murder charge in China.
"Kung Fu" was revived as a movie in 1986, with Brandon Lee, the son of martial arts master Bruce Lee, appearing as a Manchu assassin.
Carradine said the movie was part of the process of bringing the series back.
"It wasn't easy," he said. "We went through two writers and three scripts before we found a concept that moved us successfully into the modern day. We couldn't interest anyone for a long time. Warner Bros. was looking for action-adventure shows for syndication and that's how it came about."
Carradine, the son of noted character actor John Carradine and the brother of actors Keith and Robert Carradine, made his first mark in show business on Broadway in "The Deputy" and "The Royal Hunt of the Sun."
His first television starring role in the short-lived 1966 series "Shane" seemed a prelude for "Kung Fu." Shane was a wandering gunfighter who lived by his own code and philosophy, a man with a mysterious past who appeared when he was needed, then rode off.
After "Kung Fu," Carradine starred in such movies as "The Serpent's Egg" (for Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman), "Boxcar Bertha," "Mean Streets," "Bound For Glory" and "The Long Riders." The latter brought together such acting brothers as the Carradines, Keaches and Quaids.
He also played bounty hunter Tom Horn in the miniseries "Mr. Horn," painter Paul Gauguin in "Gauguin the Savage" and Justin LaMatte in "North and South."
Carradine seems to have mellowed in recent years, which might be attributable to his marriage to Gail Jensen. She shares his interest in horses and has managed his career for 11 years. When not living in Canada where the series is made, they live on a horse ranch in the Santa Susana Mountains north of Los Angeles.
He has three children - two daughters, Calista, 25, and Kansas, 14, and a son, Free, 19.